Visiting the NIC with NG, meeting MP, finding teaching contact, assigned task, dropped in thamel and Yangling khaja, hotel Yog with an old sus friend, big plans and no actions, pathao home [Tue 31]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

As I write this now, it's mid July, but such is life.

Visited NIC with NG in the morning. Okay so I clearly wrote a bunch of these and somehow they got deleted but I'll keep going. I got to NIC about 30 minutes before NG did and sunbathed. After he came over MP showed us around the place. A bit later a group of students came to see the place, and what a surprise they were from our high school back in the day! Talked to the teacher and promised to meet again, and generally made friends at NIC. Was assigned task by MP to help one of the groups with robotics.

NG had a doctor's appointment so he took a taxi home and dropped me near Thamel. I walked to Yangling and ate a hearty Khaja there. On my way back home I was walking and an old school friend of mine (S) whose name rhymed with somebody else (L) but who shared the last four letters of his name who I always confused names with, saw me, from behind and recognized me by my gait. I take that as a compliment really because at this age I ain't got no time to worry hun etc. Anyway we went to this place called Yog hotel which has at least 7 levels of roof and balcony.

Here's the thing, might have written about it elsewhere but I don't know what the deal with that place is, alright. Because it's a bit...strange. Strange people, strange doings, there was interesting stuff going on. Quite put my finger on what I found so disconcerting really, but hmm let me put it thusly. It appeared to be a place for Kathmanduites with lots of wealth and no profession to hang out and chill away from the eyes of their parents and friends, who might be found in places of better repute, who didn't necessarily grace places of quite ill repute with their own presence. Duno if that made sense.

Anyway, we made plans for like three hours to open up an educational consultancy, and then nothing happened ever. I was quite excited then, I really was.

I took pathao home, remember that distinctly because I had trouble with locating the bike exactly.

And with this I'm done with the journal writings for January good riddance. Four more months of journals, plus all the other written work to go. Yeah it's scary, but so is like, I ain't gonna let it get the better of me.

At finest tea with a new friend, disppointing and busy other bakery, bhat dal meal, I run out of lavender tablets, walk to Kathmandu durbar square and thamel, surprise run-in with an old friend, catching up, roti-tarkari dinner [Mon 30]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Actually by the time I write this it's mid July now, such is life.

Went to AU with finest tea, then to the bakery across from Apex college that was run by the same properieter in kitchen billing nd serving. Too smoky that one.

Had bhat dal takari for lunch, and took the last of my lavendar pills. I would go for many months in Kathmandu without my trusty old friend.

Walked to Kathmandu Durbar square, chilled there for a bit, walked over to Thamel so very tired, sat by Java to do some work, and was just ready to leave and go to cuppas when I met DSA, who I met back in grad school. Getting a weird feeling these words have been written before. Either way, met her, and we spent three hours catching up. Found out later her family's involvement in...actually I've definitely written for this day, don't know what happened to the text, but it's definitely been written alright.

Didn't go to cuppas because the meeting had been done and dusted...four hours earlier.

Went home in tempo or something, pathao I think it was, and had roti-tarkari for dinner.

Morning work at Chiyaghar, homely lunch, on to Bhaktapur, exploring the entire town, reading a lot, people watching, Na Pukhu lunch with friend, Newa lahana newari yum meal, new drink discoveries, friend catchup, hada ice cream, chiya sangai cafe, coolest ever, long ride home [Sun 29]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Actually, as I write the proper blog blog it's mid-July, I went on a long vacation in between my vacations etc.

I went to work at Chiyaghar in the morning, despite finding it a bit too smoky and loud and not very nice. Had lunch at home.

Then took the pathao to Bhaktapur. Visited Bhaktapur durbar area, looked at the temples etcetera. Sat by a sattal and read, watched people take photos and all, so many tiktokers and bride-groom there, so many dancers using it as a background for their life stories.

RK came to see me around 3, we went to this place called Na Pukhu for lunch, it was alright though the juju dhau I tried was great. After she went to work I went to Newa lahana and had so much newari food. Also discovered the existence of Thwon for the first time, I was obsessed with it for a couple of weeks after that.

Couple of hours later, RK came from her work, we chilled, went to Hada Ice cream where I waited as she went home and got her motorbike. From there we drove to Chiya Sangai cafe, the coolest small tea place I've ever been to, there's a review of that place in these pages somewhere. Spent about an hour or two there, then she dropped me at Suryabinayak. Tried finding public transport, unsuccessfully, then took pathao back home. So cold.

Pancake breakfast etc, finest tea cafe with new friend, taking her to 20-40, at the dessert place with so many desserts ...I start getting fat, Bhat Bhateni kfc with fam, Budhanilkantha at Aunt's [Sat 28]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Breakfast was of pancake etcetera.

Went to finest tea cafe to meet a new friend AU, who I think just blocked me on Viber in late June and I don't understand why. Regardless, I met here first on this very day, and then we went to twenty-fourty where we got the appetizer sampler. Then to the nearby dessert place, which is when I knew I wanted to hang out with them a lot. This was also when I discovered buying desserts by myself for no good reason just casually and eating them everyday is just so easy and I ought to do it a lot more often.

Got home, dressed up, and we went to Bhat Bhateni to get KFC. That KFC pickup took a very very long time, when I was getting oh so impatient. We packed momos and KFC and went to aunt's place, with niece and ED and everybody else including RG, and we spent couple of hours shooting the shit. It's always a good time there.

Morning meal at mamaghar, hangout with NG and YKD at Cuppas, random shit at Sherpa mall, City Center seeing, unexpected treat at Alev Kebab with extended family, driven home 'late' [Fri 27]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Had morning meal at mamghar, rice and fruits and desserts, always a big meal there.

Went to Cuppas, on foot through Baneshwar heights and hung out with NG and YKD. Also found couple of old brothers from school from back in the day, this was when we talked about how so many of the old boy gang is in the construction industry in Nepal.

After this NG and went to Sherpa mall and ate at hot breads, this really bad bready pizza, I was not a fan. Also fan when we talked honestly about what we want in our lives and how we should look for our partners, nothing fancy.

I headed from there to City Center area with N where he took a taxi home and I found out that ED had a treat for all of us at Alev Kebab. SO I walked from there to AK, had dinner there.

Extremely disappointing food, worst Turkish food ever. It wasn't really 'turkish' truth be told, but it was packed to the gills still. People in Kathmandu have low standards man.

Tried going home on pathao but they kept rejecting me even at 8.30 in the evening so my aunt drove and dropped me home.

Bhat-dal-tarkari lunch, walk to Honacha, new honacha discovered, meeting with N and the girls, syapu-mhicha discovered, Newari king's meal, cup of joy, back home in evening [Thu 26]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Same old lunch.

Walked to Honacha at mid-noon, waited for the gang for ever until they showed up. This was N and the girls from Philly. We tried to go to Honacha but it was closed, and so was the other one I knew of, so we found out the third Honacha that existed, this was  new discovery and a fortuitous one because I will have gone to this place several times in the trip. 

We ate like Kings, drank like emperors, the food was effing fantastic, and this was the time I discovered Syapu Mhicha which I kinda really life but it really grossed out everybody. For all the food we could have ever eaten and so much more, plus booze, for four people we ended up paying only fifteen hundred bucks.

Went to cup of joy which was this cute little cafe near my house, adorable, so nice, loved it. I'll have gone to this place many, many times in the coming days.

Healthy bhat-dal-tarkari lunch, chau chau chatpatey at the old rumpum place, yum yum yum, napping at chilling at coffee house in battisputali, old Nepal college friend, wedding party, old friend at Dockyard restaurant [Wed 25]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Had bhat-dal-tarkari lunch with many green veggies, I always love the meals in the morning that my mom cooks, no complaints ever except sometimes when there's no salt or twice the normal amount of salt.

Went to the standard rumpum chatpate place and got the rumpum chatpatey, I know it's not good for my tummy but for the memories and the flavor, ooooo, so so very good. So exciting. Pity I had it only once in the entire trip but then I did get very sick for a lot of days during my trip.

Later walked to this cafe with so many boardgames in battisputali, tried reading my ebook reader but couldn't focus so basically napped for an hour or two.

Later in the evening came home dressed and we went to a wedding party, that was of a cousin of an old college friend. She lives in Australia but moved to US in march or april and we were in the theater performances together. We didn't get to spend much time together, but it was great catching up!

Went to Dockyard restaurant right across the block from the party palace and hung out with old friend PU, she's really bad at texting or non-personal talking so it was nice catching up with her after like two years or so!

Early morning to the airport, new friend, quick flight to Simara, overpriced transport to town, exquisite lunch at Royal paratha house, old memories, going to AG place, exploring old factory, conversations, khaja, almost cancelled, evening desserts, home late in evening, picked up [Tue 24]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

This was an exciting day! NG has asked me if I wanted to go to Simara and come back on the same day and I'd said okay because there wasn't much else happening in my life at this point and I was already tired less than a week into my Nepal trip.

So I went to the airport early in the morning, met N's friend H, got on the plane, for the flight that finally flew after getting delayed by 1.5 hours and landed in Simara. There we took an overpriced transport to Birgunj downtown and had the best paratha meal in Maisthan. So freaking good, I had curd, roti tarkari achar and everything. We did go all in, ended up paying 1500 buckaroos NC for three people but oh my how satisfying and tasty and fatty it was ugh.

Lots of old memories came back in, this was where I grew up as a child, saw one of the places grandparents lived in, old school, the clock tower, the book stores I used to go to, man, good old times.

Went to the agriculture tools industry, found it all torn down, MP and his gang had already showed up and we got shown around the place. We made plans towards how to revive the place, what the problem was, and how the grasses and trees had been gotten rid of. I think if somebody comes up with a plan to teach foreign engineering and mba students to take of the place, it'd do better. Unclear. 

Had Khaja next to the new Bhat bhateni that was being constructed, I had boring stuff, and we talked a lot, I told MP to inspire the government employees because that's what they need.

Took a very affordable public transport to Simara airport. We were squeezed but definitely not ripped off.

Because the weather was so foggy our flight was pretty much about to be cancelled, so I took the gang to a dessert shop nearby and got us all the sweet desserts ugh so sweet so juicy so very very good I still miss it.

Fortunately for us the flight wasn't cancelled and we took the 15 minute plane ride back to Kathmandu. Back home dad came to pick me up and I was back home 12 hours after leaving!

Eggy pancake for breakfast, chilling and working at Chiyaghar, walk around the town [Mon 23]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

 Had eggy pancke for breakfast, went to Chiyaghar to work during the day.

During the rest of the day, I either went to the hospital due to a family illness, or possibly just ambled about walking, it's unclear because either way I didn't take photos and the google location logs are not accurate enough to figure out what happened where and when.

Sausage-cakes for lunch, meeting N at Syoyambhu, exploring her home, talking to uncle and fam, heavy lunch w so many desserts, NG joins us at Coffee place, Swoyambhu walk [Sun 22]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Mom made small eggy pancakes for lunch, so good.

Too the motorbike to Swoyamhu, spent like 20 minutes trying to co-ordinate the location for disembarkation with N. Finally figured it out, went to N's home, met her brother, uncle father, and talked to them a bunch, good times were had.

Had a big filling tiring lunch at N's place, so many desserts too, man I got really spoiled with desserts in Kathmandu, that's one of the other things I miss of there actually. Good convos with everybody.

Explored N's house and yard, so nice, so big, so many doggos. We walked to Swoyambhu temple, took pics, the stairs almost killed me. Walked down back the other day, and chilled a bit. Friend NG who was also in Kathmandu showed up. We met him at the local very expensive coffee place, we caught up, discussed future plans, the day was particularly sunny, we were on the second floor and despite being five months away from this day I still have extraordinarily vivid memories from this restaurant cafe place.

Separated, I took the pathao back home.

Walk to patan, doggo observations, sodawater and bookreading from rooftop, walk to Labim mall, local exhibition, labim mall is great, pricey strawberry juice at KJC, mid-eastern treats at Taza, momo dinner with aunt's fam[Sat 21]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Walked to Patan from home after morning meal, Saw so many dogs just chilling in the sun with their friends. Are they living the best life or a really bad life? What's a dog enjoy more, a comfy life or a free life like almost int he wild? One wonders.

Sat on the rooftop of Cafe Du Patan and had fresh lime soda and read my books. This was the plan for the entire vacation but it went out the window in like three weeks from now.

Walked to Labin mall by way of Local exhibition outside Patan municipality office. So good, bought chips, great idea to have an exhibition for locally produced products once a week.

Explored Labim mall, loved the outside part of it, the inside parts of it were...alright, not a big fan, so very pricey.

Walked from there to KJC to explore old stomping grounds.Things are...the same, and new generation of kids were doing the same things we were doing fifteen years ago. Bought a really expensive bottle of local organic strawberry juice, it was alright but felt good to support local stores.

Got the sooji ko cake and the most popular middle eastern treat at Taza treats in Jhamsikhel, and finished it like two minutes later.

In the evening came home to discover RD had come to our home, with the entire family, they'd brought momo so hung out with them had momo for dinner.

Sun-fun at home, bhat-dal-tarkari lunch, grandparents party with extended family, so much food, back home in the evening [Fri 20]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

In the morning I started this trend of staying in the ping and getting the warm morning Winter sun, so good, so warm and sustaining.

Lunch was bhat-dal-tarkari.

In the evening we went to grandparents to spend time with extended family, lots of food, ribbing and nudging yadda yadda yadda you know it. Good times were had.

I'm discovering just now that all interesting exciting things happen in the first two weeks of my Nepal trip and it's downhill from there.

Have no fear, regular posting will return for all

The bad news, as it may be, is that I haven't posted for...ooof has it been sixteen(!) days already?!? The good news is I have gotten to Nepal safe and sound, I've established some sort of routine, and have been getting in the rhythm of things. Every day is different from the previous, but they are getting more regular, I'm getting to understand the lay of the land better.

As I have written consistently on this blog the goal...or one of the things I want to get done possibly on this trip...is to understand the country better, and set pace for a business plan, or generally do cool shit. I have been making progress on that front.

The only minor niggle, and it's really quite minor to be mostly not even worth mentioning but mention we must because it's somewhat of a hassle is that my chromebook, which is the only personal computer I brought with me this time around...is very close to its final demise and there doesn't seem to be anything I can to do ameliorate the situation. A rather unfortunate condition, ugh.

But good things are ahead!

I will write more, not because I must but because I find myself in circumstances that allow me to and it was I who helped setup those circumstances. YAY for having full-ish control of one's life!

Landing in Kathmandu, good pickup entire family comes in, no jet sleep issues, out and about right away next morning, start getting ill, dead Durbarmarg, meeting NG, Ranjana soda, BK's burger, tempo home [Thu 19]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

This is going to be a long one because so many things happened on this day! This was a great start to a long trip that was pretty good but my personal self worth kept going down as the days went by so this is the best I'll feel about myself in all the upcoming posts.

Landed in Kathmandu, paid a guy a decent amount of money, a loader, to help us with the luggage, there was no problem with immigration or customs fortunately. 

The entire family was waiting for us at the airport when we landed at two in the morning. Hugged, caught up, packed and went home. Went to bed and fell asleep right away, no jetlag at all. I suspect it might have something to do with me having messed up my sleep from Seattle so my body caught up pretty quick.

The next morning I got up, had rice at home and was out and about right away without missing a bit, like I hadn't just had a 30-hour trip from the East Coast. The dust and allergy got to me right away though.

Dressed up really well and felt so good about myself, took the tempo to durbarmarg, which was so so very dead, so disappointing. Met Nimesh there where we went to Hot Breads, and talked etcetera, we walked around our old hunting grounds, got the Soda ant Ranjana's, NG was acting like a tourist all the time which was so funny to me because he basically goes to Nepal twice as often as I do. We also went to BK's burger, and yea they've not changed at all, like literally things are the same. Same people, same burgers, same fans, it's a bit weird.

Took tempos to back home. I think I started working at night right away from this day.

In the plane with fam, nothing happens in Doha except lining up, niece doesn't trouble a lot [Wed 18]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Basically we lost this day, we were in the plane for all of this time. The plane experience was alright, niece didn't cause as much problem as we feared she would.

The Qatar experience was a bit bad, they've taken the terminal and gate for Nepal in a really crappy part of the airport, and there's two layers and restrictions and airport staff unclear on what needs to be done etcetera, so it wasn't a cutting-edge exciting experience, though everything was on time so very thankful for that..

Packing up and getting ready for the trip, good middling time at the nice lounge in Dulles, disappointing vegetarian Qatar food so bad, pretty good flight [Tue 17]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Packed up belongings, got everything ready for the trip, despite working the whole day long.

We went directly to the nice lounge that ED finagled for us at the airport. Truth be told unless you have kids or are really really hungry it wasn't that much of an upgrade compared to regular airport stay, plus it was really crowded. I'd rather spend money to sit at airport restaurants and get served excellent food than use airport lounge and get mediocre food.

The flight was alright, I got decent amount of sleep. The food was really really really bad, particularly the vegetarian food. It was probably the most disappointing vegeterian food, or any kind of food I've had on flight. Particularly sad because I generally love Qatar food.

Bhat-dal-sag-jackfruit lunch, playing with bhanji allday long, mozz sticks and texas toast snacks, bhat with indochinese leftover dinner [Mon 16]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

For lunch we had bhat dal sag and jackfruit tarkari. Played with Bhanji all day long because she didn't go to day care as we'd be leaving for Nepal the next day.

Had mozzarella sticks and texas toast for snacks, they were the korean kind, it was alright, I'm not a big fan particularly.

Dinner was rice and leftover eggplant from the indochinese place from the day before.

Dunkin' drive, mother's day at Manassas and lunch there, hang with P and South Indian dosa dinner, back with the fam [Sun 15]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

We went to Dunkin in the morning to get donuts and gifts for aunty and uncle. Then drove over to Manassas where we got bhat-dal-tarkari for the festival celebration.

Later in the afternoon ED dropped me at PN's place, and we went to Indian restaurant and got dosa dinner and I told him what a good time I was having in Seattle and how everything's so great. This will come back to bite me really very soon, as soon as I go to Nepal basically, a bit of a bummer. Don't remember anything about the Dosa dinner, possibly because I was really high but it can't have been too bad.

P dropped me at ED's place in the evening, at night really where I had the code and snuck into my room and went to sleep without disturbing anybody, particularly my niece.

Packing up and getting ready all night long, Qdoba breakfast at the airport, flight to VA, meeting the fam, indochinese with rice for dinner [Sat 14]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Didn't go to bed because I was too afraid of not waking up on time for the flight. Packed up, got everything in order, walked to the station, and took the airport train early in the morning. Had breakfast at QDoba in the airport.

Took the Alaska flight to Virginia, was picked up by ED and the family, good times were had!

For dinner we had Indochinese eggplants and rice. Turns out I really really like IndoChinese food.

Cup noodles for lunch, packing luggage for Nepal journey, Volunteer park walk, hang with the full hang of boys and girls, Sb and Su chill at Capitol Cider, shootout, Ak's place hideout [Fri 13]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Had cup noodles that I'd bought from Trader Joe's (I think that was) for lunch. Because I didn't want to bulk up on groceries and really needed to finish everything in the apartment.

Started packing luggage for the Nepal journey the next day, all my packing cubes etcetera. Truth be told, if I don't have a permanent place to spread out, the packing cubes aren't super useful once they're all used up. But shorter trips are perfect for them.

Went to Volunteer park and took a couple of rounds there.

In the evening went to AK's place where SK, AKY, both AR's were there, got dinner, got high and chilled with them, talked about my Nepal plans, and generally about the future. This was my last night before Nepal trip, this would be the last time I'd see a lot of those folks in a very long time. By which I mean several many months.

Went to Capitol Cider with Sb and his girlfriend and chilled there, got drunk a bit and jpt, plans about future, funny things, weird things all of that. She's such a nice person, great time was had.

On our way out, the bouncer told us there had been a shootout or something, so i got super scared, hid at AK's place for half our, and snuck walked to my place, and nothing came off of it. Turns out nobody was seriously hurt and it was okay in the end.

Shiva the board-game cheat

This is a part of 'project 110, going back and re-filling', writing is happening 8ish months after the date.

With a hundred winks
the god who bears the crescent moon
silences her smiling, witty friends
as he slides his men across the board,
counting wrongly,
skipping squares
to trick the goddess in the deep
and crooked games he plays to win
a tight embrace.

- God Inside Out: Shiva's Game of Dice (Handelman et al.) page 82

Shiva-Parvati household's grocery list for Nandin

This is a part of 'project 110, going back and re-filling', writing is happening 8ish months after the date.

Grocery list for Nandin (PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS PLS!)

1. The purest of honey made from the goldenflower that booms for two days on the base of Annapurna mountain (collect as much as you can)
   
   
2. Purest, untouched snow collected on the leaf of the lotus plant from the peak of Mandara mountain (50 kilos)
   
   
3. Ghee made from the milk of the cow Kamadhenu, EXCEPT you need to make sure the milk is actually collected from her teats and not wished from her. Remember, it CANNOT be ghee from wish-milk or wished ghee, somebody needs to have milked the holy cow and made ghee out of it! (20 kilo)
   
   
4. Reeds made from the Dandin plant from the depths of the seas where the former lands of Dwarka formerly lay (20 in count)
   
   
5. Leaves of the Yarchan Ghumban plant found in the high himalayas (200 count)
   
   
6. Some bark from the Imaginary Tree, it has to be from the one KalpaBriksha!
   
   
7. Liquid fire from the depths of the Southern Sea, please make sure the fire is not burnt out like the last time! (10 kg)
   
   
8. The blue-green metal from Jambudwip (200 grams)
   

Brown rice-green curry fried rice for lunch, TJ's for gifts to Nepal, cleaning up the groceries before Nepal departure [Thu 12]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Once again made fried rice with the green curry for lunch. It was great probably because of the coconut milk.

Went to Trader Joe's to buy chocolates and other minor gifts to take to Nepal.

Worked really hard to finish everything in my fridge and pantry before leaving for Nepal, so lots of finishing whatever was remaining in the apartment.

Rain and rainbow, coconutty curry fried-rice, Rancho bravo soup and tortillas for dinner [Wed 11]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

It was raining all day long, such large rainbow outside my apartment. That should be a justification for why I didn't walk out of my apartment.

Made fried rice with the coconut curry for lunch, browned a bit, yum yum.

Dinner was rancho bravo soup and tortillas. Now that I have a microwave, I suspect this might have been the last time I'll have gone to the place because ugh, I'm not that big of the place anymore. It's overpriced for the shitty service, ambience and food it offers.

Target pickup, baklava snacks, afternoon hang at AK's place [Tue 10]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

Picked up couple of things to take to Nepal at target. Got two or three different kinds of baklava at the Middle Eastern place near AK's place on CapHill. Hung out with the gang for a bit in the afternoon, and there's no record of it in my photos.

I definitely remember eating the baklava and walking in cal anderson park, such distinct memories, those.

Green curry (long-beany) with rice for lunch, Bombay burger dinner with reconnected far cousin [Mon 9]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

For lunch I had green curry with lots of long beans with brown rice.

Met cousin A at Bombay Burger for dinner, had to take his stuff a shade he'd bought for his mother. We got caught up on what he'd been upto, his life in the city, and his plans. I should hang out with him a lot more often, but didn't get around to fixing up connections because in late June I've been bac for only ten days, and haven't really settled down completely yet.

Getting my fourth covid shop at CVS, missed connection?, SK ready to head out at AK's place, Costco trip mistaken coconut item, bass pro shop fail, broken car [Sun 8]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do. 

Went to CVS and got my fourth covid shot. The pharmacist was really interested in my life story, I wish I'd shown more interest in her and asked for her number because who knows where it might have led to? She was a sweet vietnamese international student like me!

Chilled with Sk and Ak at Ak's place in the afternoon.

Aky and I went to Costco for a quick shopping trip, where he tried to get me to shop for a bunch of things, but I didn't. Except I bought coconut milk instead of coconut water, what a goof. The next nine days will involve me putting coconut milk in every single milk, that's something I've written about elsewhere on this blog.

We went to Bass pro shop in extreme heavy rain to get some sort of snare that my dad wanted, but that shop didn't sell. Man that store is such an adventureland, I'd like to regularly go there just to check it out.

Sk's car broke on our way back from bass pro shop, but fortunately he had kept a battery charger there so AK fixed it and we got home safe and sound.

Pau bhaji with veggies and buns for lunch, interlaken-volunteer walk in the rain,TJ's popsicles, spring rolls with sweet sauce snacks, roti tarkari dinner, hang with boys and sb at Chop suey, home at 2 [Sat 7]

I'm writing this in late June, because of the 5-month stay out of my control. This is how life is, how it'll be. What to do.

For lunch I buttered up and toasted pieces of bun real good and use that as base for pau bhaji for the leftover veggies. I'll do anything to use up leftover veggies without repeating a meal, hah. This is a strength, I gotta write about in detail.

Afternoon was interlaken-volunteer walk as it rained. I didn't mind, actually started loving the experience.

Had popsickle from TJ's as dessert in the afternoon.

Made aggressive move to finish the spring rolls with sweet sauce, at this point they were finally done I think!

Dinner was roti and tarkari, the roti looks really good in the pics!

In the evening I went to AK's place and him, AKY and Sk were there, we chilled and hung out and later I went to Chop suey with the boys where Sb joined us. It was pretty decently fun, not outrageously so but not as bad as we've had in the past, where we left halfway thru because it was so awful.

What happened to all the restaurants on my walk, and the future of Seattle food scene

Saw the big little burger permanently close the other day as I walking that way. Then I saw two other restaurants down the street had shut down recently too. That's interesting, wonder what's happening around here. Is it the prices, is it the labor situation, is it the demand aka reduction in consumption? If more pricey places take their place, it can't be the reduction in consumer interest. Maybe it's the increase in rent, with the non-matching increase in prices, where restaurants can't upscale at the same rates the rents are going up? But the macroeconomic news and general vibe suggests that everybody is getting ready for the 'recession' that's likely not gonna happen so I don't buy the fact that the older more popular restaurants are being outpriced out of the market by the fancier places. But the fancy places are so insanely pricey I don't understand how the market is even supporting them, there can't be that many people making so much money and the recent tech firings must have dampened the market right?

It's so weird, I'm curious how things are going to pn out.

More on this later.

Is boiling everything unnecessarily a stew or a lazy person's half-assed sad pathetic food?

Because I don't have a microwave, and despite having the airfryer which I've grown to love by now, you can't just airfry everything, I need to warm everything I make in the pan. And because I don't want those leftovers to burn or get too dry, I add a bunch of water before reheating. So eventually everything turns into soupy stewy mess.

Is it sad and pathetic, because everything has similar texture this way? I think not, because people ere doing this in Nepal until quite recently, without the microwave and beside this is how humans have reheated their food for thousands of years over the fire.

Besides there's nothing to worry about the texture as often I do breads to eat on the side with curries so it's not like I'm compromising everything. It just...takes forever to heat even one small bit of food and nothing gets done in lesser than fourty minutes, even if it's minor reheating job. So cook or not, it's about the same time.

In short, microwaves make a lot of sense for me, and I should consider getting one, to put on top of my airfryer, or vice-versa, when I'm back from Nepal.

Mushroom powder thickens all

I've been putting mushroom powder on sauces and stews, for the extra flavor, to thicken them up, and to add a bit of a zing, and it's such a great ingredient, hadn't considered it before!

It's confusing sometimes because the powder looks like normal spices and you don't think your stew or curry is going to thicken up all of a sudden but it does and you think wow it became a slurry all of a sudden and it's less of a broth and more of mixture! And the msg-like texture it adds is pretty great too!

Putting (unsweetened) peanut butter on everything

 Unsweetened peanut butter is so versatile. I put it on stews and curries to thicken them up, the taste is not overpowering and it adds a nice bite. Put it on the burger, it makes the food more creamy, juicy and gives a bit of a bite, particularly if the eater doesn't know it's peanut butter, their mind is blown!

I've also put it on noodles, the pb sandwiches, and other misc food items.

It's so good, it's great in the sauce, in curries and stews, in sandwiches and in burgers. Yum yum yum.

My ongoing projects: a list

1. Natto (frozen)
   
   
2. Tempeh (frozen, ongoing)
   
   
3. milk kefir
   
   
4. milk-derived water kefir
   
   
5. water kefir culture, bought
   
   
6. chhyang
   
   
7. kimchi
   
   
8. kombucha (minor failure)
   
   
9. kombucha-kefir combined culture
   

Finally one fucking good essential oil

 So turn  out all the essential oils I've been using to make my apartment smell goods have been real stinkers mostly. Such chemical scent, such gross powerful headache-inducing odors that nobody liked them. Then I tried one of the new ones, it smells a bit citrusy and everybody freakin' loves it so much! And it smells so fresh and not..chemical-like. Like it makes me hungry and it cuts the smells of the smoke and fat and everything else.

So a year and half of trying all the different essential oil I've finally discovered the two bottles of similar-smelling oils that works for me, hurray! I just wish I'd tried those oils before I'd bought them.

That's the lesson from this whole situation: need to smell the essential oils I'm going to make my apartment smell like before actually buying them.

Thirteen things I want to do in Nepal

1. Play golf
   
   
2. Stay in hotels for weeks
   
   
3. Travel all across the country
   
   
4. Propose local governments to become innovation consultant
   
   
5. Propose state governments for innovation consulting
   
   
6. Go out to eat all the time
   
   
7. Write novel and work on my projects in cool cafes
   
   
8. Be out in the sun and sunbathe after work
   
   
9. Work 4 hours at night and 4 hours in the morning
   
   
10. Go on hikes
    
    
11. Hang out with friends old and new
    
    
12. Go on dates
    
    
13. Attend classes while I'm doing all the above things
    

Seven reasons why ghosts from the TV show Ghosts are probably what ghosts are actually like

1. Because they're not transparent, ghosts can't be transparent AND see stuff, that's not how life works.
   
   
2. They're funny. Real life ghosts are probably funny. Only so long you can be all glomped up for.
   
   
3. They hold grudges, I'd hold grudges too if somebody killed me unceremoniously.
   
   
4. I too would haunt a large mansion for the rest of eternity if I could, because small apartments are just so cramped.
   
   
5. They don't howl all the time like old-timey losers, it takes up a lot of energy and not too scary.
   
   
6. They look like normal people, you don't change into a white sheet like the kkk just because you're deaddd okaaay?
   
   
7. They're helpful, which is nice, I imagine if you're hoping to make it to the good place I'd be trying to do good deeds too.
   

Eleven reasons Brexit was a good idea actually (TM)

1.  Red passport? Or was it blue? Or what was that again?
   
   
2. The environment gets better because agriculture export is non-viable, since they left their biggest economic union.
   
   
3. British crown on the beer
   
   
4. Amazing opportunity for companies in European countries because competition suddenly reduced by a lot
   
   
5. Great opportunity for European employers because a large chunk of well-trained labor source suddenly opened up
   
   
6. EU financial industry just got a big boost
   
   
7. India's trade negotiations against UK got a big boost
   
   
8. Millions of immigrants from poor non-European countries had a new labor destination suddenly open up and become viable
   
   
9. CO2 emissions reductions in the UK because of reduction in GDP and consumption
   
   
10. Great negotiating hand for the U.S because now UK have shown themselves to be friendless and lost their leverage
    
    
11. Large exporters have to now deal with smaller exporters through cabotage because the small-scale export is not viable anymore.
    

Ready for the bivalent covid booster and flu shot!

Just got the appointment at CVS tomorrow morning at Downtown Seattle location for my double shot: a bivalent covid booster that'll protect me from the incoming onslaught of new variants that's likely to take a couple of rounds of the global population. Having suffered terrible fever and weakness last year I would very much not get sick or at least have very mild symptoms of the diseases in case i get infected.

Also worried about the Flu -- even if the disease is not covid, getting fever and bed-ridden is no fun. There's so many variants of random flu running around, it's stupid to compromise my safety for no good reason. This is the second time I'll have taken the shot, the first being the last year. I understand now the importance of making myself safe from these viruses.

First day of new classes, rush to Trader Joe's for dinner prep, downloading textbooks for course, disappointing first session, burgers with Sb, quick QFC run, Barboza with the boyz [Fri 6]

This day was such a rush because it was my first class for the new course and it was a Friday, so it was all so hectic. Because it was Friday, and we were going out and I had Sb come over, plus going out to dance, there was really no time to write on this blog.

So after work I rushed to Trader joe's to buy tomatoes and onion so we could have burgers for dinner. Instead of cleaning the apartment and vacuuming I spent the rest of the time downloading ebooks for the course and getting ready for the class.

The class was exceedingly boring and annoying because we spent the entire 3-hour period on figuring Myer's Brigg's test which is one of the most unscientific and irritating piece of business research ever.  I tried really hard to ignore what was happening and let it happen in the background.

After classes finished I did a quick cleanup of the place and Sb came over. We spent drinking all the various ferments I made, watched tv and chilled for a while. Around 9 we started making the burgers, and then I realized far too late the burger buns had gone too moldy. I had to through it out and we went on a quick QFC run, man I'm so lucky to be living so close to the grocery stores. With the new round of brioche buns bought, we had exceedingly great Chikn burgers with tomato, lettuce, onions, feta cheese, peanut butter, mayo, mustard, sriracha and those round food things. Yum yum yum, Sb enjoyed it a lot.

Then we headed out to Barboza, it was a bit too busy at first, until the end and the music was extraordinarily mediocre. No space to move around, all the cute girls were leaving and the stuff they were playing was impossible to dance to. Still so many cute girls though and if only I'd been drunk i'd have had a lot better time. If only I could get my social anxiety and overthinking plus shyness out when I'm out and about I'd never ever care for booze, that's the only one reason I'd care to drink.

Anyway I wanted to dance some more but the boys were tired and bored and not at all drink enough so we left around ten past one, with plans to hang out again the following night.

Went to sleep pretty quick after getting home.

Tofu-chickpea-dal-rice lunch, volunteer and downtown walk, Uniqlo disappoints me, aborted covid booster, stew with tofu for dinner [Thu 5]

 The meals are going to be exciting and wild because I keep adding new ingredients to the existing stew. SO for the lunch this morning I had tofu chickpea dal and rice from the day before.

In the evening I took a single round of Volunteer park, then onto Downtown by way of Olive Way. To Uniqlo because I wanted to buy cheap jackets and nice cap, but turns out the jackets are not cheap anymore and they've stopped selling the caps so it was a bit of a disappointment.

On my walk back I decided to get into the walgreens to check if there's vaccine available for covid but decided against it because I was wearing full t-shirts.

Dinner was the same as the morning before, with eggplant and more chickpea added. It gets wilder.

Hang at AS's place, A comes back from East, volunteer walk with the boys and doggo, cheesy burger and mushroom soup for dinner, so sleepy [Wed 4]

 In the afternoon after work I went to AS's place to hang out with the boys. A was back from the East after weeks and it was interesting to get caught up on his New Year's events.

The three of us, plus M the doggo went on a walk to Volunteer park, nice chill walk.

Back home I made myself a nice big mushroom soup (with the base I'd bought from TJ's couple of months ago, yay for me finishing all the groceries at home!) and the chickn burger like from the night before with extra cheese added, that I bought at TJ's also. Food was so good and filling I felt sleepy immediately, actually took a nice long nap in the evening, so forgot to write on this blog.

First day of work post holiday, Sichuanese cuisine lunch pickup, Little Big burger closed, Volunteer park walk with Sk and the doggo [Tue 3]

 First day after vacation! Felt really good to be back honestly because the expectations were gonna be low, there was a feeling of the 'post-vacation excitement' people have in schools and colleges, and work was relaxing. Also felt nice to be talking to people again and it does add a nice structure to my days.

Because I had been given grubhub credits by work I ordered thirty dollars worth of food from Sichuanese cuisine and picked it up. It was sunny outside, by the time I was home it was so so hot I as sweating. What's happening these days yikes. Food was yummy as always and the leftovers have lasted may days.

On my way back I noticed to of the restaurants I used to frequent closed. Big Little Burger, a place on which I have written many posts here has closed permanently unfortunately. Wonder what's up with so many places getting closed. So weird.

In the evening went on a walk with Sk and M the doggo to Volunteer park.

Sunny day, day-long blog, leftover lunch, volunteer park walk, TJ's grocery trip, trap-buying, disappointing oakleys, simple Chikn burger [Mon 2]

The day was sunny after a long time, it felt a bit too hot when I was outside.

Spent all day rushing to write to be done with the December's posts so I could get onto new year.

For lunch I had the brown rice and veggies from the night before.

In the evening went on a round of volunteer park, took such a sunny photo! Dropped by TJ's for a quick grocery trip.

Back home spent 2 hours figuring out the perfect animal trap to take home. Got Oakleys that I'd ordered from the work site, it was so bad I look like a goof. Gotta offload it to somebody.

Dinner was Chikn burger with regular fixins.

Writing writing, New Year's sleep, drive to Bellevue, walk in Bellevue downtown and park, an incident with a backing car, spooky foggy day, brown rice and veggies cooked [Sun 1]

The first day of the new year, after the exceedingly relaxing day I had!

Spent most of the day writing on this blog, to cover up for the days I'd lost for our drive down South and the Chelan trip.

Slept until quite late and wasted a lot of time on the public internet forums that aren't too exciting, would rather not waste time on that nonsense I wish.

In the afternoon I walked over to Sk's place, and we drove over to Bellevue downtown next to the downtown park. Took several rounds of the park, and walked a couple of blocks nearby. The town is great but Bellevue is a suburban smalltown that's trying so very hard to become a real city but can't because of all the goddamn car infrastructure, those stupid parking lots everywhere.

As we were returning, Sk backed into a car and gave it slight scratch by half a millimeter, not much of an issue. But the driver of the car who was well into mid twenties seemed very inexperienced, called his dad on what to do and spent thirty minutes on figuring insurance stuff out even though the cost of the repair is going to be nothing compared to the increase in insurance premiums due to non-fault claims for the car's insurance.

S dropped me home, the day was really foggy with barely thirty feet of visibility.

For dinner I boiled brown rice on the cooker, then dumped a bunch of veggies etcetera, let it all cook and steam in the rice cooker itself, along with the chinese achar. I don't like brown rice much but one's gotta do what one's gotta do.